This is an excerpt from a 2-hour interview, part of the Shaping San Francisco "Ecology Emerges" oral history collection, with long-time San Francisco environmental writer Harold Gilliam (conducted by Chris Carlsson). In this short clip he tells how he was lured to Washington DC to work for the Stewart Udall Interior Dept. under LBJ, where he was able to help derail plans to run a northern Bay Bridge from apx. Telegraph Hill to Angel Island to a new freeway up the Tiburon Peninsula. Below are images and proposed routes for this never-built bridge.

Thanks to Eric Fischer for making these images, and many more, all in high resolution, available at his flickr account.

Proposed Central Freeway along 7th Avenue, 1956

The deconstruction of the Embarcadero Freeway, 1990

Photo: Chris Carlsson

Embarcadero Freeway early 1960s, before highrises made it to the edge the City.

Photo: Shaping San Francisco

In 1959, the idea that freeways could relieve traffic was still somewhat plausible, before every local highway was jammed with traffic within a few years.

Freeway stump of Interstate-280 where it originally ended construction at 3rd Street near King. Later it was torn down to accommodate the Mission Bay plans and the new Giants stadium just east of this spot.

Photo: Gabriel Patrick Navarra via Facebook

In the 1940s the California Dept. of Highways came up with various plans to blanket San Francisco with freeways. This is a version proposed in 1948 by San Francisco's Planning Department.

Thanks to Eric Fischer for making this map, and many more, all in high resolution, available at his flickr account.

Early 1960s fantasy of new bridge adjacent to the then-brand new Candlestick Park.